Russian mountaineer, Vitaly Abalokov, is credited with being the inventor of the first spring loaded camming device for climbing, though it was American climber, Ray Jardine, who took the rock climbing world by storm when he teamed up with UK based, Wild Country, to produce the iconic ‘Friend’ in 1977. A host of pretenders to Jardine’s throne followed in fairly rapid succession with very few of them succeeding ….. we have one of the failures here in the collection. Brainchild of German mountaineer, Bernt Prause, the Bivo appeared in 1984 and while it certainly worked ok, the two cam design, rather than the four of a ‘Friend’, made it less stable when placed in a crack and the rigid wiring system did not allow flexibility, though we’re told a later version did. They came in a set of various sizes and were made/marketed by Edelrid. They probably saw some service and popularity in Central Eurpoe, but were virtually unheard of elsewhere, relegating them to the ‘things that never quite made it’ category. This particular one came from a Doctor Graeme McCrory, who we think was based down in central Scotland – thanks Graeme.